â€œMemory is the treasury and guardian of all things.â€ â€"Cicero, De Oratore

At the Federation Rhetoric Symposium two years ago, composition scholarKathleen Blake Yancey focused our attention on The Fifth Canon â€" Delivery,foregrounding the many ways that this largely forgotten canon shapes anddefines 21st century literacies. This year weâ€™re extending the discussionby considering the fourth canon â€" Memory.

In what ways does memory live in current rhetorical practices?How does this classical device both focus and fragment our research?How does memory mediate our pedagogy and practice?How are 21st century literacies mediated by memory?How does new/old media mediate memory? (And vice versa?)

Deborah Brandt (University of Wisconsin-Madison), noted scholar inliteracy studies, is the keynote speaker this year. Her book Literacy inAmerican Lives (2001) was awarded the 2002 MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize,the 2003 Grawemeyer Award in Education, and the 2003 CCCC Outstanding BookAward. Brandt has additionally published Literacy as Involvement: The Actsof Writers, Readers, and Texts (1990) and has Literacy and Learning:Reflections on Reading, Writing, and Society forthcoming.

We welcome submissions from all areas including but not limited to:Rhetoric and Composition, English, Journalism, Political Science,Education, History, Film Studies, Media Studies, Art, Psychology, andSociology. We also welcome presentations via non-traditional modalities â€"video, audio-/image-based.